MC

1
MC UM Algae/Biodiesel Project

• Background Review
• Status as of May 12, 2009

2
MCES Interest in Algae
GHG
Hypoxia
1.0 -gt 0.3

• CO2 P N light ?

3
Concept

• Extract oil from algal cell mass some species
  gt 50 oil by weight
• Use catalytic hydrothermal gasification on wet
  material to generate usable synthetic gas, heavy
  oil, and char

4
Project Goal

• Determine the technical and economic feasibility
  of using algae to reduce nutrient and carbon
  dioxide emissions and subsequently recover oil
  and other energy products from the algal cell
  mass.

5
MC Focus

• Phosphorus removal
• MPCA proposing substantial reduction in effluent
  limits
• Any value from cell mass reduces net cost of P
  removal
• CO2 removal and value of credits
• Nitrogen removal

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Metro Plant Schematic
centrate
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Application at Metro
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Oil Production Potential
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UM Screening Algal Species
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UM Bioreactor Design
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UM/MC Harvesting Experiments
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Metro Pilot Plant
Located in SMB
Door closed to protect intellectual property
reactor design
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Experimental Reactors
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Simplified Growth Model

• CO2 N P light O2
• Corganic O2 N P CO2

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Pilot Plant Performance
Varying wasting schedule during startup not
steady state operation
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Project Funding